9th European Aviation Conference

Getting real about climate change & aviation: Economics & policy for this decade

The 9th European Aviation Conference will be hosted by DCU as an online event on December 1^st and 2^nd 2021. Organised by DCU Business School, the conference offers a unique meeting place for industry stakeholders, researchers and government officials from across Europe and around the world to discuss timely, policy-relevant issues in aviation and to seek insights and practical solutions to challenges facing the aviation industry.

Researchers, industry practitioners and government representatives will come together in a virtual setting to share expertise on the conference theme, “Getting real about climate change and aviation: Economics and policy for this decade”.

The environmental impact of aviation provokes passionate responses, ranging from ‘flight shaming’ and calls for drastic unilateral reductions in air travel to beliefs that ‘technological innovations will save the day’ and calls for recognition that aviation is a necessary condition for a healthy economy. Amid such debates, there is a need for frank, non-partisan analysis and discussion of whether air transport can continue to provide economic benefits while accepting responsibility for its environment impacts.

Keynote speakers this year include:

Henrik Hololei, Director-General, Mobility and Transport European Commission

Sir Dieter Helm, Professor of Economic Policy, Oxford University and Author of Net Zero

Brian Pearce, Former Chief Economist, IATA

Other panellists include Marylin Bastin, Eurocontrol, Marina Efthymiou, Dublin City University, Florian Allroggen, MIT; Aeronautics & Astronautics and Jagoda Egeland, OECD International Transport Forum.

“We are very pleased about this year’s keynote speakers and panelists,” says Dr. Hans Martin Niemeier, Chair of the Organizing Committee. “We will really push this year to investigate whether the combined efforts of industry, governments and researchers can result in a credible path towards a sustainable aviation sector.”

“Sustainability plays a central role in our research and teaching here at Dublin City University. We have been educating the future aviation leaders in our Aviation Bachelor and Masters degrees, and we produce impactful research in various areas, including sustainable aviation. We are privileged to host for the second time the European Aviation Conference. In this forum, policymakers, industry and academia meet to discuss important issues, like climate change.” says Dr Marina Efthymiou, EAC executive committee member and DCU MSc Aviation Leadership Programme Chair.

“The European Aviation Conference (EAC) returns this year to Ireland, an important centre of aspects of the global aviation industry, and to DCU, home to aviation programmes at both Bachelor and Masters levels. No topic is more timely or more important than the relationship between the climate and aviation. It is definitely a central issue for our aviation students who as future managers will help to steer the industry along a path that safeguards the environment and the international connectivity offered by air transport.” says Cathal Guiomard, chair of the DCU BSc Aviation Management programme.